


Love Potion No. 9

by frecklesarechocolate



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Schmoop, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-07
Updated: 2013-06-07
Packaged: 2017-12-14 06:46:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/833937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frecklesarechocolate/pseuds/frecklesarechocolate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam plots to try to get Dean and Cas together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Potion No. 9

**Author's Note:**

> First, thank you to clotpoleofthelord for being a great beta! Second, I apologize for this. I have been sick all week, so this is the best that I have been able to come up with. Lame, I know.

 

Sam finds it in the back of one of the obscure Men of Letters books that he's been going through, and it sparks an idea.

It's probably not a good idea, but it's an idea nonetheless.

The paragraph is short, but it's pretty much to the point, and Sam thinks it might be just what the doctor ordered.

He plans carefully. Sam always plans carefully, but this time he wants to make sure nothing goes wrong.

Step one. Leave the evidence where it can be found. Easy enough. He leaves the book open to the proper page and on the table in the library. He settles in a chair at the other end of the table, flips open his laptop and waits.

Dean comes in about twenty minutes later, eating an apple, and he stops by the book, his eye idly drawn to the lurid illustrations. "Did you read this, Sammy?" Dean asks, picking up the book.

"Hm?" Sam asks, feigning ignorance.

"Love potions, though rare, are powerful. They can be used to stimulate feelings of affection, but most often will prove most useful in revealing strong feelings of love that have been hidden." Dean snorts. "Yeah right." He flips to the front cover of the book and notes that it's one of the books from the archives. "Huh." He puts the book back on the table. "Doing a little recreational reading there, Sammy?"

Sam grimaces. "No. That stuff isn't true, is it?" He watches Dean carefully. Dean purses his lips and thinks about it for a second.

"Nah. Can't be."

Sam nods, but then pauses, as if something has suddenly occurred to him. "Although there are lots of things we used to think didn't exist."

This is the moment that Cas chooses to join them, dressed in an old Black Sabbath t-shirt of Dean's and a frayed pair of jeans. So used to seeing Cas in his holy tax accountant get up, the boys think he looks a little, well, naked, but his clothing had been so ruined on his travels to the bunker after he fell that they'd had no choice but to burn them.

Sam took Cas's entrance as an opportunity. "I mean, we used to think there was no such thing as angels, right?" Dean grunts a response, too absorbed in eyeing Cas. Sam rolls his eyes, because this right here is part of the reason he's decided to go through with this whole farce to begin with. He's just tired of Dean and Cas staring at each other all the time and not doing anything about it.

Cas gives Dean a quizzical look. "What are you talking about?"

Dean flashes Cas a flirtatious grin. "Love potions." Dean taps the page of the book, drawing Cas's attention toward the table.

"Those can be quite dangerous," Cas says in a thoughtful tone. He reads the page over Dean's shoulder, and Sam can't help but notice how close together they're standing. If he could just... smoosh them together, maybe that would help.

But Cas steps away after a minute, and Dean doesn't seem to have noticed Cas’s movements at all. It’s all Sam can do to keep in his scream of frustration.

"Really, Cas?" Dean asks.

Cas nods. "Yes, if done correctly, a love potion can be quite potent. They're rare, though."

"Think there's one roaming around in all this stuff, Cas?" Sam asks, waving his arm to encompass the Men of Letters bunker.

Cas looks at Sam thoughtfully, as if this hadn't occurred to him. After a moment, he nods his head again. "Yes, if there were a group of people who could pull off a love potion, it would be the Men of Letters. You should be careful what you touch."

"That's good advice, Cas," Dean says. "You hear that Sammy?"

Sam rolls his eyes. "Yeah, I got it, be careful."

"Hey Cas, come on down to the shooting range. Wanna show you around a bit." Dean grabs Cas by the arm and practically hauls him down the hallway. Sam pinches the bridge of his nose between his thumb and his forefinger.

This had better work.

A few weeks go by, and Sam works his way through half a bookcase worth of volumes. Dean spends most of his time working in the dungeon and on the shooting range. What time he's not using to figure out what's actually in the bunker he spends with Cas. Half the time they just sit around and talk about not much of anything, and the other half the time, they flirt shamelessly.

Actually, Dean is shameless about it. Sam doesn't think that Cas is quite aware of how obvious his flirting with Dean really is. At any rate, the two of them are sickening together, and if anything, Sam thinks, it's been getting worse.

Sam decides to put his plan into action the next day. He just can't take it anymore.

He gets up early and digs up a small old pitcher he found when he was cleaning out some of the cupboards in the kitchen. It's small and ornate, made of pewter, and it's pretty heavy. There are curlicue designs on the sides that look a little like hearts if you squint, and the handle is meant to look like a blade of grass. The pitcher comes with a lid, and if you put your thumb on the little handle, the lid will open and you can pour out whatever substance is inside.

Sam fills it with creamer and puts it on the table in the library. He gets rid of the remaining creamer so that's all there is in the entire bunker. He goes into his room for a while and sits back and waits.

It's not long before he hears Dean get up and head into the kitchen. Dean rattles around in there, opening and closing drawers and cabinets, and then the fridge door. Then Dean swears loudly and stomps from the kitchen into the library.

Sam can almost picture Dean with a cup of black coffee in hand, scowling at the library, hoping to find someone to yell at because there's no more creamer, but frustrated to find himself alone. Dean will scan the room and his eyes will light on the small pewter pitcher sitting innocently on the table. He'll pick it up, look inside and see there's a white, liquid substance inside. He'll think about it for maybe one second, tilt his head and give a sturgeon face, and then he'll pour the creamer into his cup.

Sam waits a few minutes, and then heads out of his room and into the library. Sure enough, Dean is seated at the wooden table in his bathroom, his slippered feet crossed at the ankles and propped up on the table. In his hands is a cup of coffee (with creamer, Sam notes) and by his foot on the table is the small pewter pitcher.

Sam, hoping his acting skills are up to snuff, looks around the library. "Dean, have you seen..." he looks around a bit more, and then pretends to find the pitcher. "Ah!" He picks it up, and then pauses. He tests the weight of it, as if trying to decide if it's lighter or heavier than the last time he picked it up.

"Uh, Dean?" Sam asks.

"Yeah Sam?" Dean replies.

"Did you... You didn't happen to take anything out of this pitcher, did you?" Sam asks.

Dean looks down at his now nearly empty cup of coffee. "Uh, why do you ask?"

"Oh my god, you did, didn't you?" Sam puts the pitcher back down on the table. "Did you drink it?"

Dean pales. "Uh... No?"

"Dean!" Sam says. He throws his hands up in the air. "I just put it there for a little while! I don't know what it is yet! I was going to go look up the symbols on the side..."

Dean grabs the pitcher. “What symbols??” He looks at it from all angles, and practically drops it when he sees the heart-like curls on the side. “Sam.” Dean’s voice is very low. “Is this…” he clears his voice. “Is it possible this is a love potion?” As he speaks, his voice increases in both volume and pitch; to the point where he’s practically squeaking by the time he finishes his question.

“I don’t know, Dean! I haven’t had a chance to check. It’s not like there’s a card catalog around here or anything!” Sam yells. He’s quite proud of his acting abilities, if he does say so himself. Sam takes the pitcher from Dean and turns to leave. “I’m going to see if I can find anything out. Meanwhile…” Sam points at the chair. “Maybe you should just stay there.”

Dean plops down in the chair as if the energy to stand has suddenly left his limbs. Sam leaves him there, trying not to burst into laughter. Phase one, complete.

The rest of the day passes in a fairly normal fashion, even for them. Dean doesn’t seem to be acting any different, not that Sam would expect him to – it was just the two of them, after all. Cas was actually out when the incident with the “creamer” happened that morning, so it’s not until late afternoon that Sam gets to see if his plan has borne any fruit.

Dean’s serving up dinner (macaroni and cheese – from scratch, no less) when Cas comes in, and Dean stutters to a halt in the middle of spooning up a serving for Sam. He stares at Cas for a long, long time, even longer than usual for Dean. In fact, Cas even notices, because he frowns slightly, and says, “Dean?”

Dean just shakes his head and continues to serve up dinner. They settle in at their places and start to eat, but then Dean realizes he’s forgotten something. So he pops up and grabs salt and pepper from the kitchen, handing them to Cas. “The last time we had mac and cheese, you said it was a little bland,” Dean says.

Cas murmurs his thanks and tries a forkful of the food. A smile blooms across his face. “This is delicious, Dean.” Dean answers Cas’s smile with one of his own, and they stare at each other for several long moments. Sam has to clear his throat multiple times to get their attention.

Dinner concludes without further incident, and Cas starts to clear the dishes. Dean hastens to help him out, insisting on drying while Cas washes. Sam just shakes his head.

The next day or so continues like that. Wherever Cas is, Dean is not far behind, crowding even further into Cas’s personal space and offering to do things he used to work extremely hard to avoid doing in the past, just so he can spend a little more time with Cas.

It escalates bit by bit after that, though. There are casual touches: Dean rests his hand on Cas’s elbow, or at the small of Cas’s back as they enter or exit a building. Dean stretches his arm out over the back of the couch when Cas sits near him, and one memorable moment when Dean grabs hold of Cas’s hand to pull him back from the street to avoid a speeding car. And he doesn’t let go.

All in all, Sam thinks, it’s going pretty well. If he had his way, it’d move a little faster, but this, at least, is progress.

There’s a break in the dam, so to speak, on the evening of the third day. They’re watching a movie, not much to do, and the lights are low, because Dean insisted on having the right “viewing conditions,” whatever the hell that means.  Dean and Cas are on the couch, and Sam’s in a chair, his feet propped up on a coffee table. Each day brings forth new surprises from the bunker – they happened to have everything necessary for a media room, except for the modern technology, of course, which Dean went out and bought. He came back, hooked it all up and insisted on a Star Trek marathon right then and there.

However, tonight’s movie was part one of _The Hobbit_. Sam glances over to Dean and Cas about two thirds of the way through and realizes that they are kissing.

Unable to contain himself, Sam says loudly, “Well, it’s about damn time.”

Dean and Cas pull away from each other quickly, each with a guilty expression on his face. Dean’s face is particularly red, and he splutters. “It… but… it wasn’t…”

Cas frowns and turns to Dean. “It wasn’t what, Dean?”

Dean stares at his hands, which are clutched together in his lap. “I may have drunk a love potion by accident,” he mumbles, and it’s almost too quiet to hear over the movie.

Cas makes an irritated tsking noise, picks up the remote and shuts off the tv. “What did you say?”

Dean can hardly raise his eyes. He repeats himself, and Sam has to cover his mouth with his hand, because on the one hand, it’s pretty funny watching Dean squirm, but on the other hand, it’s damn funny.

Cas tilts his head to the side. “So… you don’t want to kiss me?”

This is the moment when the bottom falls out of Sam’s stomach. Because of course, while this is meant to be a joke on Dean, and while it’s actually meant to get Dean to see that he’s being an idiot and doesn’t need to hide his true feelings about Cas, Sam forgot that there would be another victim of this particular prank. He covers his face with his hands and groans loudly.

Dean whips around. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Sam doesn’t uncover his face, his answer muffled by his hands. “Yeah. I mean, no. I mean, yeah, I’m fine. Dean, listen.” And here he realizes that he’s going to have to face the music no matter what, so he takes his hands away and places them palm down on his knees. “Um. You didn’t drink a love potion. There was no love potion.”

Dean frowns. “What?”

“No love potion. It was just…” Sam can’t sit still any longer, so he gets up and starts to pace up and down the room. “I was just trying to get you to see what you were missing.”

“What I was missing?” Dean looks at Cas, who has a curious expression on his face, a mixture between irritation and dawning understanding. “What was I missing, Sam?” Dean asks, and his voice is taking on a dangerous tone, one that most monsters and demons know to run from.

But Sam is no monster, nor is he a demon, and while he may know better most of the time, he also knows when it’s time to face the music. “I lied, okay. It wasn’t a love potion, it was just creamer. I thought that if you had the excuse of the love potion to fall back on, you would let your true feelings show through, and…” Sam hesitates and holds out his arm, pointing at Dean and Cas, who are seated, flush against each other. “And look! Look at you two. This is exactly…” Sam stops and regroups. “You guys are clearly in love with each other. I thought that telling Dean there was a love potion would just give you a push.”

Dean and Cas exchange a glance. “A push,” Cas says in a flat tone.

“Yeah,” Sam says. “Surprise?”

“Dean?” Cas asks after a painfully long moment.

“Yeah?”

“Are you just acting this way because of a potion? Or do you really…” Cas hesitates over using the word, and Dean takes the opportunity to rush in and kiss Cas again. Sam politely looks at the wall to his right, trying to give them a little privacy.

“Oh,” Cas says after a moment.

“Maybe Sammy was right,” Dean says quietly, and Sam can see Cas nodding his head slowly. Sam begins to back out of the room. “Dude, do not think that you’re not in any trouble over this,” Dean says, pointing at Sam.

Sam holds up his hands. “Yeah, I know, I know, just thought you guys might want a little… alone time.”

“That’s a great idea, Sam,” Cas says, as he leans in to kiss Dean.

Sam hurries the rest of the way out of the room. He knows Dean’s pay back is going to be bad. But it’ll totally be worth it if Dean and Cas can figure their shit out.

 


End file.
